Go Kenny!

Red Clay’s School Board creates a new committee to investigate charter and magnet school admissions policies for possible prejudice.

Board member Kenneth Rivera, District C, introduced the topic at Wednesday night’s meeting.

“If you look at the demographics at some of the schools, it is a vast disproportionate number of students who are of low income, special ed, certain races who are not attending certain schools,” Rivera says. “So my question is, why?”

As commenter Publius often notes over at Kilroy’s, Red Clay is simply responding to demand. WDEL continues:

There’s no doubt charter and magnet schools in Red Clay School District are a popular option.

Yes, and separate drinking fountains were once a popular option in certain quarters.

But race aside,

Numbers also show 53.9 percent of kids in Red Clay are considered low-income, but 5.7 percent of Charter School of Wilmington students are low-income. […]

Rivera says action needs to be taken to ensure institutional hurdles aren’t stacking the odds against race or economic groups.

“What are the proactive measures we are taking as a district, because we do value diversity and we do value the opportunity for everyone to have an equal chance to attend these schools,” Rivera says.

But here’s a hint Kenny. Expand your horizons – resegregation isn’t just about charters, it is also about other decisions made by the Red Clay board. Take a look at feeder patterns, and the impact of “choice only” Brandywine Springs, and the fact that Red Clay doesn’t have any neighborhood secondary schools in the city.

Like this:

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Does Cab have a mechanism for helping kids w/o resources for private lessons gain admission (that is, pass the audition stage on to the lottery)? Maybe they do–though their low-income % is very low for that district and area. It would be great to have a way that art teachers in area schools could nominate students with enthusiasm for (maybe also promise in?) the arts who cannot get the kind of leg-up in auditions that private coaching provides, due to limited resources. Or perhaps the school could obtain a grant (Longwood foundation?) for a multi-week summer arts camp for underprivileged kids the purpose of which would be, in part, to identify children with artistic interest and (again, maybe) ability. The arts can really help some students to remain engaged in school; it seems a shame to limit an arts-intensive public school to students whose families are able to give them significant extra-curricular arts exposure–esp. for kids as young as 12!

I don’t live in Red Clay, but we know many children who attend Cab. There is quite a local industry of portfolio and audition prep, available to middle-class children whose parents are willing to fund it (I met a painter recently whose summer employment is comprised almost entirely of that).